ARRGgggg Kowabunga!

This school has really been a challenge. It is a difficult course. The material is put out at light speed and I get the idea that some of these obscure paragraphs will show up on the final exam weeks after we covered them.

We do some of our work on our laptops. EVERY SINGLE LAPTOP FROM GEORGIA was acting up. hmmmm. They gathered them up for their IT guy to work on them, so I was computer-less for over 24 hours. Yeah, I could do my work and keep up by watching the guys sitting next to me do their work, but I couldn't go to my room at night and study. No problem. Drive on.

I took the APFT and FAILED THE RUN portion by TEN FREAKIN SECONDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRrrr. Yeah it was *only* a "diagnostic" test. However I have to take the test again on Monday. TOP it ALL OFF, those of us who failed...got a counseling statement. In case you don't know. That is not a good thing. ESPECIALLY when it is a negative counseling statement. I have NEVER EVER gotten a negative counseling statement in my entire Military career. NEVER! Sigh. I hate failing. So those of us in Platoon (class) 2 have been assigned a student instructor to help us with remedial training. The guy to help with the run is a tiny little high speed guy that does the two mile run in UNDER thirteen minutes. Geez. He said he helped a lot of guys in his unit when he was deployed to shave time off their run. He gave us some good tips and said he would print up a sheet with instructions on what to eat and what to do (like not run the day before the APFT test) and several tips. Good.

The guy that sits next to me in class is SGT Estrada. He is Puerto Rican/Colombian descent but was born in Venezuela. The guy who sits to my left in class is SGT Fajardo. He is Puerto Rican and will be one of the recruiters there. They are both very young, VERY handsome, hispanic guys. Estrada is prior service Marine Corp Sniper (I am IMPRESSED). He also is a body builder and a personal trainer but now will be a recruiter in NY state. They BOTH LOOOOOVE to give me a hard time. I told them I was first generation Colombian American. So they razz me and say "You not no Hispanic..you lying SGT Fields!" Estrada like to pester me ALL day. I ignore him mostly. Also they talk to each other in Spanish... Now, I am not fluent in Spanish however over the years I gleaned enough from my family to catch the gist of conversations. They talk about me sometimes and I pretend to not understand. I think it is hilarious because I am going to wait until they say something REALLY damaging and then I am going to answer them in English. I cannot WAIT because then they won't know what I understood and what I didn't! They like to talk about women, so it will be REALLY funny.

Estrada is also our remedial instructor for the push-ups and sit-ups. I don't need to attend that class however I would like to increase my scores so I attended. He is really good. He had us doing some killer exercises and recorded our levels. He says he can greatly improve our work. He gave us some tips on the test as well. So I am hoping to really do well on our APFT test on Monday. Push-ups are really difficult for women and ANY help I can get, the better.

My husband and the kids will be here to visit me in 10 days, YEAH!!!! They will drive to Memphis and I will meet them there. There are a lot of things to do in Memphis so it will be fun. Joshua has never seen the Mississippi River. We will have to cross so he can say he has been to Arkansas. I miss them ALL so much. My husband has been so encouraging. He has been such a big help to me. I miss him terribly. He is my big handsome man and I cannot wait to see him. I think I will have to get adjoining rooms or a suite when they come up (if you know what I mean).

All in all things are...ok. I was really depressed yesterday. I wanted to throw in the towel. I kept thinking in class "Why did I do this?? What made me think leaving my family for five weeks was a good idea? Remember when you were a stay at home mom, piddling around on the computer, enjoying your toddler all day? Why did you think that was not a good thing??" At one point I was just spacing out with a deer in the headlights look and Estrada leans forward and with his thick accent quotes a movie and says "I see dead people..." I busted out laughing recognizing the line and realizing that is what I looked like. After class I went back to my room, put away the books, watched some very light TV and rested. I drank lots of water, and rested. I woke this morning feeling better. Not great, but better. Class today was more fun and I just took it easy and quit stressing about it. I will make it through and I will go back and be a great recruiter and do some wonderful things with and for my family.